Finished!


I finally finished my socks that I started in September. Of course, I worked on other projects in between. And, here is the roving I bought from the Fold.

Yarn Crawl!


This weekend, I went on my first yarn crawl with Erica and Kelly my fellow KTGO members. Let me say that I had a fabulous time. We hit six yarn stores in one day. Needless to say, I was tired by the end of the day. The first stop of the day was at Sunflower Samplings in Crystal Lake. The store had a large selection of yarn and accessories. From there, we proceeded over to the Quietly Wilde Yarn shop in Woodstock. The owner was very friendly but the store is closing at the end of February. Next, we headed over to The Fold in Marengo. I thought I died and gone to Yarn heaven. The Fold was everything I look for in a yarn shop. The customer service was great, the yarn selection was excellent, they had really pretty colored roving and the prices were reasonable. The Fold is the type of yarn shop that is inviting. You want to stay, browse and spend up your money. I buy most of my yarn on the internet; however, after visiting the Fold, I will start going there for some of my yarn purchases and roving. After the Fold, we went to The Yarn Exchange in DeKalb. They had a large selection of Brown Sheep yarn. The store personnel were very friendly and helpful. The last two shops for the day were Wool and Company in Geneva and Fine Line Creative Arts in St. Charles. Wool and Company was a nice store. They had a lot of fun accessories, books and patterns. There yarn selection was nice too. The drive was a bit far for me however, if you are in that areas definitely stop in. Finally, the last stop of the day was Fine Line Creative Art shop. The shop was really small but nice. This shop would be good to attend if you want to learn weaving, dyeing, spinning, crocheting etc.

I made purchases in four of the six shops. I’m happy to say that I didn’t over spend. I’m sure my husband is happy too. I had to buy yarn for my Knitting Olympics project as my mail order roving hasn’t arrived. I bought some Sock that Rocks and really pretty blue roving 2 pounds for $20. You can’t beat that price.

Tagged!

I have been tagged, so here are my answers.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
Cashier,Receptionis,tAdministrative Assistant,HR Administrative Supervisor

Four Movies I could watch over and over:
Chocolat,Meet the Parents,Jackie Brown,Wizard of OZ

Four Places I have lived:
Chino Hills CA, Bellflower CA, La Mirada CA, Illinois

Four TV shows I love to watch:
Knitty Gritty,Footballer’s Wives,American, IdolOprah

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
Mexico,Hawaii,England,Florida

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
Lake County KTOG,Knitters Review,Daily Knitter,Oprah

Four of My Favorite Foods:
Chocolate, Burritos,Chicken Curry,French Fries

Four Places I’d rather be Right Now:
Hawaii,Florida, California,Caribbean

Four Bloggers I am tagging:
Stacy, Chris, Heather, Alma

I am going for Gold!

Ok, I’m jumping on this Knitting Olympics. bandwagon. My friend, Kelly, planted the seed in my head. And, once I start to mull over an idea I have to do it because there will be no peace for anyone. Thank You Kelly! I think it will be fun because I never finished anything in 16 days and I am up for the challenge. I have decided to knit Boogie as featured in knitty.com. I am even going to spin my own yarn for the project. I will spin like a mad fool night and day for the next two weeks. That should be plenty of time to get my yarn prepared, I hope!

Is it the wheel or is it me!

It has been a week since I first started spinning and I am catching on really quite well. Spinning is actually easy if you have the bobbin on correctly. Can you believe that it took me an entire week to figure out that the yarn was not feeding properly because the bobbin was backwards! I could not figure out why I could spin relatively well clockwise but once I began to ply using the wheel counter clockwise it just went down hill. I am sure I threw out an entire sheep with the roving I wasted. Thank goodness it was not expensive.

You know, I like this spin and knit as you go. There is no pressure. I can start and stop spinning when needed. I don’t have to worry about remembering where I left off. And, once your nearing the end of your ball of yarn, you stop and spin some more. My new dilemma is what to make. I know it has to be a quick knit as I need instance gratification I am not much of a hat or scarf person so I am thinking of a vest. A vest you ask why? Well, I am not big on knitting sleeves and the yarn is chunky and I have chunky arms. Chunky arms and chunky yarns equal Michelin Man on me.

Now in case you are wondering what is in the photo, no it is not dead rats but yarn. The skein on the left or the large rat, I mean the skein, is what I spun up this weekend. And the smaller skein on the right is the result of my first go with spinning. Which skein looks better?

Finally, in case your wondering about the happy looking dog in the photo, that is Jake. He was a gift for my husband 9 years ago from me. All I can say is, " I should of bought him a tie."

The Verdict!

I completed my first Spinning Class this past Saturday and the verdict is I absolutely love it. I knew the first moment I began to spin I wanted the challenge of learning to make handspun yarn. In fact, I actually bought a spinning wheel. I did test many before making my selection.
And, I am very pleased with the wheel I choose, the Prelude (an entry level wheel), by Kromskis of Poland. It is not too much wheel but just enough for a beginner and the quality is excellent and the price was right too.

I’m taking a Spin.

I am so excited, this Saturday; I will be taking my first spinning class. I know your probably wondering why is her blog about knitting and spinning and she can’t even spin. Well, I have answer for that question. I really want to learn and I will. I am realistic it will not happen over night and that is ok.

It is funny because I use to think people that would go through the trouble of spinning their own yarn were nuts. But, I slowly changed my thinking the more I would see the beautiful fiber people were creating themselves. In addition, even though I love to knit there are times in which I want be occupied doing something and knitting is not always the answer. Yet, I still feel the need to be creative, so I thought I will give spinning a whirl.

My first attempt is going to be on a wheel. I know a spindle is out of the question for me right now and I am not saying I wont’ learn. I just heard that while it is cheap and portable compared to a wheel, it just takes a little more to patience to master. And with two children a husband and a dog mine is very limited. But, I can totally see my self on vacation some where with a spindle in hand.

The Shawl

As promised, here is a photo of the shawl I am working on or should I say will be working on in the near future. I will start to work on it once I complete my Fair Isle vest. I hope to have my vest completed by the first week in February. I had to put my vest down because I was getting a little bored with it. No the truth is I am delaying. I’m getting scared to complete the steeks. I am loosing my nerve a bit. I even considered just knitting the back and front separately and seaming them at the shoulders. But, I decided against it as I already worked out how I want to do the steeks and couldn’t be bothered trying to figure out a different method. So, I will continue with the steeks as planned. The Fair Isle Vest is a test vest. I want to make all my mishaps on it. I wasn’t that thrilled with the colors or the weight of the yarn but it was already in my stash. I would rather mess up on the cheap stuff rather than my Jamieson Shetland wool.

Happy New Year!

It is the start of a New Year and I am so thankful to be alive and well. I have my loving husband, my darling children and a whole new year of knitting projects. Of course, I still have a few from last year that still need to be completed but that is okay.
I am progressing well on my sock. I am just decreasing the stitches on the heel gusset. This week, my Meet up group is having a sock knitting workshop and I what to have my sock at a point where I can just knit and not worry about shaping. Shaping and talking the two just do not mix. You’re either ignoring the person you’re conversing with or your totally messing up your knitting.